Latching device



Apnl 29, 1969 A. s. MARTI ET 4 I LATCHING DEVICE Filed Aug. 23. 1966 Sheet of s INVENTORS ANTONIO SOLER MART! JUAN, SOLER MARTI JOSE SOLER MART! MARIO SOLER MARTI W J $333M April 29, 1969 Filed Au 2a, 1966 A. S. MART! ET L LATCHING DEVICE Sheet 2 01" s INVENI'ORS ANTONIO SOLER MART! JUAN SOLER MART! JOSE SOLER HART! MARIO SOLER M ARTI ATTORNEYS April 29, 1969 Filed Aug. 23, 1966 A. S. MART! ETAL LATCHING DEVICE ATTVEYS United States Patent Int. Cl. Eb 37702, 15/14, 1/00 U.S. Cl. 70-310 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A safety latch for closures such as doors is operated by a simple divided spherical knob, the portions of which are independently operable. It employs no keys and its combination may be altered whenever the latch is in unlatched position. Further, access to the interior of the door may be had by the simple removal of the knob.

The field of safety locks is full of models with numerous keys and with various operating knobs, these prevent unauthorized persons from opening the doors. This complication, however, also atfects the owner of the lock, who must be equipped with the necessary key, which is easily lost, misplaced or stolen. The latch which is the subject of the present patent application has all the advantages of the combination lock, has also the advantage of not needing any key, and of having the entire control of the latch concentrated in a single knob, divided into halves which may be operated independently, the appearance of which is simple.

Another advantage of this lock is that the knob may be easily removed, once the door has been opened and access had to the interior of the door, by simply loosening a nut.

Lastly, a device which is easily operated with the door open permits the owner of the lock to establish in the latter the combination he desires to be able to open the door.

By way of an example we now describe an embodiment of the improved latch with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1A shows an exploded view of the latch.

FIGURE 1B is a perspective view of the bottom of the case.

FIGURES 2, 3 and 4 represent one of the three sets of meshing devices which form part of the latch.

FIGURE 5 is a section indicated by X in FIGURE 1A.

In FIGURE 1 only one of these sets is shown in order to make the drawing clearer.

The latch, housing in a case 81, with a cover 82, is composed of the following devices:

(a) A device to operate the bolt.

(b) A device to operate the combination, which may or may not permit the operation of the bolt.

Assuming that the device for the operation of the combination permits the movement of the bolt, the latter will be operated in the following manner.

A knob 1, of spherical form, is joined to a shaft 2 terminating in a rectangular projecting piece 3 which engages in an aperture 4 of similar form in a circular cam 5 provided with an arm 6 ending in a projecting piece 7 of circular form.

The projecting piece 7 engages in a recess 8 cut in the opening 9 of the plate 10 which is joined to the bolt 11.

The plate 10 slides on the inner face of the case 81, and is guided in its movement by a screw 12 housed in the groove 13 of the case 81, and by the aperture 14, in the case 81 for the passage of the bolt 11.

The rotation of the knob 1 transmitted by the shaft 2 to the cam 5 causes the piece 7 to move the plate 10 and I the bolt 11 against the action of the spring 15 abutting the bolt and a part 40 on the case, and in the event of the knob 1 not being operated, the spring 15 maintains the bolt in its projecting position, that is to say keeping the door closed.

The bolt 11 has on its inner part a rib 16 which penetrates into an opening when the mechanism of the combination permits the door to open, and which abuts against a stop-piece which impedes its movement when the combination is set to prevent the door opening.

The combination device of the latch is constituted by a knob 17 of spherical form equipped with a numbered disc 18 and a sleeve 19 with a lug on its inner face which engages in a longitudinal groove 21 in a hollow shaft 22 within which there turns freely the shaft 2 of the mechanism for operating the bolt.

Mounted on the hollow shaft 22 there are three sets of parts, although only one of these sets is shown in FIG- URE 1 for the sake of clarity.

Each of the sets 23 consists of the parts shown in FIGURE 2B, and which comprise.

A toothed wheel 24 which turns freely and which engages with a stop wheel 25 and an auxiliary wheel 26 which limits the turning of the three wheels. An eccentric cam 27 with a lug 28 projecting in its central aperture, which said lug engages with the groove 21 of the hollow shaft 22 operated by the knob 17.

An operating lever 29 has a catch 30 which penetrates between the teeth of the wheel 24 urged by the action of a spring 31. A second pivot catch 32 is urged by a spring 33 to maintain its projecting part between two teeth of the wheel 24, and a spring 64 secured between the auxiliary wheel 26 and the case rotates the wheel when it is not impeded.

Each one of the three sets 23 is fitted to the shaft 22 in a different parallel plane, and are contained within the case so that the three toothed wheels 24 and the three cams 27 have as their pivoted axis the hollow shaft 22; the three stop-wheels 25 mounted on the shaft 34, and the three auxiliary wheels 26 rotate on the shaft 35. The three operating levers 29 pivot on the shaft 36, and the three springs 31 are fixed in the part 37 and their ends are supported in the piece 38.

The three catches 32 turn on the shaft 39 and their springs are anchored in the part 40.

In combination with the three sets 23 there is an eccentric piece 41 with a central aperture with a lug 42 which engages in the groove 21 of the hollow shaft 22 and which consequently turns as result of the action of the knob 17 so that its teeth 43, 44 and 45 slide over the arch 46 of the lever fitted on the cover 82 of the case 81, causing the lever 47 fitted by screw 48 to the outer side of cover 82 to tilt when each of the teeth 43, 44 and 45 of the eccentric piece 41 passes over the tooth 49 on the lever 47.

The lever 47 has a transverse arm 50 which in predetermined positions can push, by means of the pivot piece 51, the three catches 32, disconnecting them from the wheels 24.

The three cams 27 have their circular profile cut by a chord 52 in such a manner that when one of the teeth of the eccentric piece 41 releases the tooth 49 of the lever 47 one of the cams has its chord 52 in contact with the corresponding operating lever 29. Thus in FIGURE 3 there has been represented by a continuous line a cam 27 whose position corresponds to that shown in FIGURE 3A for the eccentric piece 41, that is to say when the tooth 43 has just passed over the tooth 49 of the lever 47.

A counter-clockwise turn of causes a second cam 27 (not shown) to have its chord, indicated in FIGURE 3B by a line of crosses 53, contacting its corresponding operating lever, at which moment the tooth 44 takes up the position which is occupied by the tooth 43 in FIG- URE 3A.

The third cam 27 will have its chord, indicated by a line 54 consisting of small circles, contacting its corresponding operating lever when the tooth occupies the position which is occupied by the tooth 43 in FIGURE 3A.

These three positions of the cams 27 are indicated on the exterior of the latch (FIGURE 1) by the alignment of three numbers of the disc 18 with an index 56 on a plate fixed to the door. The operation of the latch is as follows.

When the bolt 11 is in its projecting position, the shaft 34 will be provisionally displaced to the position 34 by means of the displacement of its anchorage 57 with respect to the bottom of the case, as shown in FIGURE 1B by the arrow 58, until the lug 59 on the case enters the aperture in the spring tongue 61 on the anchorage 57. The shaft 34 has two operative positions, (1) engagement or original position of the combination as shown in FIG. 3 and (2) disengagement as shown in FIG. 2. In order to move the shaft from position (1) to position (2) the wheel 25 is aligned with rib 16 as shown in FIG. 1A, and then the spring tongue 61 is raised to a position where it is released from lug 59 and then displaced manually to the position of aperture 60 (FIG. 1B).

FIG. 1B shows the disengaging position, in order to return to the original position aperture 71 of spring tongue 61 engages lug 59.

As shown in FIGURE 2 the movement of the shaft 34 to the position 34 separates the teeth of the stop-wheel 25 from the teeth of the wheel 24.

If a counter-clockwise turn 62 is given to the eccentric piece 41 until the profile 63 slides over the arch 46 of the lever 47, the transverse arm 50 on the lever pushes the piece 51, and this latter pushes the three catches 32 which cease to retain the teeth of the wheels 24. Since, in addition, for the position indicated in FIGURE 2A the three cams present their circular profile to the three operating levers 29, the catches 30 cease to penetrate in the teeth of the wheels 24, and thus the wheels 24 can turn freely, as can the auxiliary wheels 26, which turning takes place through the action of the springs 64 fixed at one end in the pulley of the wheel 26 and by the other end in part 66 on the case. Both wheels turn until the sector within teeth 67 of the wheel 26 prevents it.

Once the tooth 43 passes beyond the tooth 49 and occupies the position indicated in FIGURE 3A, the straight profile of the cam 27 will occupy the position shown in FIGURE 33, the catch 30 penetrates between the teeth of the wheel 24 because of the operating lever 29 being pushed by the spring 31.

The wheels 24 and 26 are held in their new position since the transverse arm 50 of the lever 47 ceases to push the piece 51 and consequently the catch 32 penetrates among the teeth of the wheel 24 through the action of the spring 33 anchored in the part 40.

Each time that the knob 17 is given a slight clockwise turn so that the tooth 43 comes up against the tooth 49 of the lever 47, the rectilinear edge 52 of the cam 27 will occupy the position 52', causing the operating lever 29 to rotate clockwise and the operating lever 29 through its catch 30 one of the teeth of the wheel 24 which will turn, as will the wheel 26, through an angle corresponding to a tooth, and on the knob 17 returning to the initial position the cam 41 returns to the position shown in FIGURE 3A Each time that this to-and-fro movement of the knob 17 (FIGURE 1A) is repeated at the position of the hollow shaft 22 shown in FIGURE 3A, and which is known from the exterior by the correspondence of a numeral on the disc 18, for example I, with the reference point 56, the wheels 24 and 26 advance through an angle.

In this manner the wheel 24 is given a turn such as that undergone by the tooth 69, the position of which corresponding to the advance of three teeth is indicated with a point in FIGURE 3B. This turn has been achieved by giving the knob 17 three slight to-and-fro movements around the position I on the disc 18 (FIGURE 1A).

On rotating the knob 17 so that the position II, 55, of the disc 18 is facing the reference point 56, the hollow shaft 22 will have turned 90 in a counter-clockwise direction 62, the tooth 44 occupying the position which the tooth 43 occupies in FIGURE BA. Since the profile of the eccentric piece 41 only produces a slight movement of the lever 47 because of the radial length of the tooth 44 being much less than that of the tooth 43 there results a slight displacement of the lateral arm 50 incapable of pushing the piece 51, the catch 32 thus remaining engaged in the teeth of the wheel 24 of the second set 23 (FIGURE 1A) of mechanisms. This turn of 90 will have caused the straight part 53 of a second cam to contact the edge of its corresponding operating lever as has been seen above for the position I of the disc 18 (FIG- URE 1A).

The same number of to-and-fro movements of the knob 18 around this new position II will cause the corresponding toothed wheel 24 to rotate through an angular distance corresponding to an equal number of teeth as before and through the corresponding auxiliary wheel 26 it will tension the spring 64 these wheels being retained by the corresponding catch 32.

The knob is further rotated through 90 and the process described repeated, the to-and-fro movements imparted to the knob 18 around the new position III will displace the same number of teeth on the wheels 24, 26 of the third set 23 (FIGURE 1A).

The teeth such as 69 of the wheel 24 of the first set, which were initially in the position indicated in FIGURE 2B, have turned advancing as many steps as the number of to-and-fro movements imparted to the knob 18 in each one of its three positions; under these conditions, the shaft of the stopwheels 25 is displaced from the position 34' to the original position, so that these wheels 25 maintaining their notches 68 facing the rib 16 of the bolt 11 mesh with the teeth of the wheels 24 and the bolt can move as shown by the arrow because of the rib 16 being able to penetrate into the notches 68. The secret combination remains fixed in the latch when the shaft of the wheels 25 is immobilized in its original position, because of having caused the part 57 (FIGURE IE) to move until the lug 59 fixed on the case 81 enters the aperture 71 of the spring tongue 61.

Shaft 34 is joined with spring tongue 61 which is movable towards and away from the case, so when the spring strip is raised to release it from engagement with lug 59 and as it is moved towards aperture 71 the shaft 34 is thereby displaced.

Since the bolt 11 occupies its projecting position through the thrust of the spring 15, its rib 16 remains outside the notches 68 of the wheels 25 and does not impede the turning of these latter, and the latch is in its closed position, but with the possibility of being opened by the simple turning of the knob 1, as has been described above.

To block the latch it sufiices to give a new turn to the knob 18, beyond the position III. Thus the profile 63 (FIGURE 2A) again pushes the arch 46 of the lever 47, the transverse arm 50 pushes the piece 51, and the latter pushes the catches 32 which free the wheels 24 since the earns 27 present their circular edge to the operating levers 29 and the catches 30 do not impede the turning of the wheels 24. On the toothed wheels being free to turn the springs 64 cause the wheels 26 to turn until they take up the positions shown in FIGURE 2B, and in this movement they have moved the stop wheels 25, displacing (FIGURE 4) each notch 68 from the position to receive the rib 16 through the angular distance corresponding to the number of teeth that the tooth 69 advanced. Thus the rib 16 canonly advance a small distance 72 and the bolt 11 does not allow the door to which the latch is fitted to open.

In each position of the disc 18 I, II and III it is necessary to repeat the same number of to-and-fro movements imparted to the knob 17 as those imparted for the advance of the tooth 69 of each set 23 to the position that-it had when the shaft of the wheels 25 was displaced from position 34 to its original position to restore the notches 68 to a position to receive the bolt rib 16.

In FIGURE there is seen the section indicated by XX in FIGURE 1A, and in it there are marked'by the the letters A, B and C the parts of each one of the three sets 23 mentioned. From this figure it may be seenthat the knobs 1 and 17 have diameter zones 73 and 74 with serrated surfaces to facilitate their handling.

What we claim is: a

1. A safety latch 0f the type having a bolt and mounted in a case comprising a knob rotatably mounted about an axis, the knob including a pair of mating hemi-spherical portions, each having a serrated circumferential band to facilitate turning, one of the portions of the knob connected to a disc provided with indicia for indicating angular positions, said one of said portions joined to a hollow cylindrical shaft provided with an exterior longitudinal groove for accommodating parts of the mechanism of the combination in which said hollow shaft rotates, another shaft joined to the other of said portions of the knob and terminating in a prismatic part having a screw'thread at the end thereof fixedly attached to one wall of the case, said prismatic part engaging a central aperture of 'a'circular disc with a radial lever, one end of the lever housed in a recess in a plate which is joined to a bolt, such that operation of the device causes movement of the bolt through an aperture in another wall in the case, a set of cams having apertures at their centers, a lug extending inwardly from each of the apertures of the cams and engaging the longitudinal groove whereby the cams will rotate with the hollow cylindrical shaft, one of the set of cams being in the form of an escapement wheel and having a predetermined number of teeth corresponding to the positions of one of said portions, one of the teeth having a radial height greater than the others, the rest of said set of cams having a circular configuration with a cut-off portion in the form of a chord of a circle, the chord being displaced from one cam to the next by the same angular displacement which separated two consecutive positions of the hollow cylindrical shaft which separates two consecutive teeth of the escapement wheel.

2. A safety latch as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a lever rotatably mounted in the case and resting on the escapement wheel which has a tooth which permits the hollow shaft and the cams thereon to be turned in a counter-clockwise direction, said lever terminating in a transverse arm which rests on a catch provided with a spring which maintains the lever in contact with the teeth of the escapement wheel.

3. A safety latch according to claim 1, further comprising an operating lever in the plane of each of the other of said cams and pivotally mounted at one end thereof, a spring means engaging the operating lever for maintaining the lever member in engagement with the peripheral edge of each of said other of said cams, said one of said portions of the knob and the hollow shaft having positions in which successively each of said other of said cams has its rectilinear edge in contact with its respective operating lever, each of the operating levers having a catch at the other end thereof and a tooth wheel associated with each cam, each of the said catches engaging with its respective toothed wheel, each wheel being freely mounted on the hollow shaft and alternately spaced between each of said cams.

4. A safety latch as claimed in claim 3, wherein each toothed wheel meshes with the teeth of a rotatable disc, each rotatable disc including a concentric axially spaced pulley and a helical spring connected between the pulley and the case and biasing the pulley in one direction.

5. A safety latch as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a shaft common to a plurality of stop wheels, each stop wheel having a radial notch and mounted on a block which is slidably mounted in a groove in a wall of the case, the block having a portion which projects through said wall of the case, a spring tongue pressed between the block and the case and having two apertures only its length, a lug mounted on the case such that it is adapted to alternatively engage the apertures of the spring tongue corresponding to the positions of the block.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 783,351 2/1905 Abernethy -304 1,413,393 4/1922 DiBella 70303 1,416,855 5/1922 Michalek 70310 FOREIGN PATENTS 357,726 8/1922 Germany.

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT L. WOLFE, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 703l6, 327, 445 

